Whether in a large business or in a home environment, keeping up an inventory can take a lot of work. However, incorporating technology into inventory systems has helped reduce the amount of work required. For example, containers holding inventory items have been mechanized to transport the items where they are needed. Inventory items have been equipped with unique identifiers such as bar codes or radio frequency identification tags (RFID tags) to allow an inventory system to track the movement of the inventory items. Robotic mechanisms with end effectors have been used to handle and manipulate inventory items. All of these innovations have improved inventory systems, but there is still potential for improvement, especially when it comes to using robotic mechanisms in inventory systems.
One challenge with using robotic mechanisms with end effectors to handle and manipulate items is supplying the robotic mechanisms with the functional instructions needed for interacting with each item. In some current systems, the robotic mechanisms are preprogrammed to handle each item with which they will foreseeably interact. In other current systems, the robotic mechanisms are programmed by installing software programs via physical memory devices that accompany the items. In still other current systems, information about each inventory item is stored in a centralized database that is accessible by the robotic mechanism and a user interface. Users oversee and maintain the inventory system via the user interface and update the database when new items with new properties are added to the inventory. The robotic mechanisms access the inventory for information to instruct them how to interact with the inventory items. In some systems, the robotic mechanisms scan bar codes or RFID tags to identify items in the database.
However, all of these systems provide challenges when there are many or changing items of all shapes and sizes. Programming the robotic mechanisms or updating the database is complex and time-consuming. Furthermore, the robotic mechanisms and items often must be manufactured and sold together in order to be compatible and for the robotic mechanisms to have access to any databases containing the item information.
In light of the foregoing, what is needed is an inventory system in which each component of the system stores only the necessary information required to perform tasks specific to that component, and in which each component is capable of communication with all other components with which it interacts in order to access any additional information. In other words, what is needed is an inventory system in which each inventory item can communicate its own specifications to a robotic mechanism in order to teach the robot how to interact with the item.